"F" Word Origins

fa

Latin

From the medieval solfège system devised by Guido of Arezzo, who took the syllable from the Latin hymn "Ut queant laxis," where "fa" begins a line of the text.

fab

Origin

Short for "fabulous"; the chip-factory sense is a separate, unrelated shortening of "fabrication."

Faber

Latin

From the French occupational surname meaning "smith" or "ironworker," variant of Favre, both from Latin faber (“craftsman”). Doublet of Dobry.

Fabian

Origin

From Fabius Maximus, the Roman general who wore down Hannibal's invading army by avoiding pitched battles and cutting his supply lines rather than fighting directly. His name later gave rise to the Fabian Society, a British group that pushed for socialism through gradual reform.

Fabio

Spanish

Borrowed from Spanish Fabio, Italian Fabio and Portuguese Fábio.

fable

Latin

From Old French fable, from Latin fabula ("story"), rooted in fari, "to speak" — the same root gives us "fame" and "affable".

fabric

Latin

From French fabrique, ultimately from Latin fabrica, "workshop" or "product of skilled work," from faber, "craftsman."

fabricate

Latin

From Latin fabricare, "to build or construct," from fabrica, "workshop" — the sense of "make up a lie" developed later in English.

fabrication

Latin

From Latin fabricatio, the noun form of fabricare, "to build or construct."

fabricator

Origin

From fabricate + -or.

Fabrizio

Italian

Borrowed from Italian Fabrizio.

fabulist

Origin

Borrowed from French fabuliste. By surface analysis, fable + -ist, or, by surface analysis, fabula + -ist. Compare fabular.

fabulous

Latin

From Latin fabulosus, "celebrated in fable," from fabula, "story" — the same root as "fable."

facade

Latin

From French façade, from Italian facciata, related to faccia, "face" — ultimately from Latin facies.

face

Latin

From Old French face, from Latin facies, "form, appearance."

facebook

Origin

From "face" plus "book," echoing the printed student directories ("facebooks") that US colleges once handed out, which the website was originally modeled on.

faced

Origin

Abbreviation of shit-faced.

facelift

Origin

A literal compound of face and lift — the surgical procedure "lifts" sagging facial skin.

facepalm

Origin

From face + palm. Attested since at least 2001.

facesitting

Origin

Compound of face + sitting.

facet

French

From French facette, a diminutive of face, "face" — literally "little face."

FaceTime

Origin

From "face time," meaning time spent talking to someone in person or on video.

facetious

Latin

From French facétieux, from Latin facetia, "jest, wit."

facile

Latin

Via French from Latin facilis 'easy to do', from facere 'to do, make'.

facilitate

Latin

From French faciliter, ultimately from Latin facilis, "easy."

facilitation

Origin

From facilitate + -ion. Compare Latin facilitātiō.

facilitator

Origin

From facilitate + -or.

facility

Latin

From Latin facilitas 'easiness', from facilis 'easy', from facere 'to do, to make'. The 'ease, skill' sense came into English first; the 'building or amenity' sense developed later.

facsimile

Latin

From Latin fac simile, literally "make similar" — fac ("make") plus simile ("like, similar").

facsimilize

Origin

From facsimile + -ize.

fact

Latin

From Latin factum, "a thing done or made," the past participle of facere, "to do." Doublet of "feat."

faction

Latin

From Latin factio, "a group acting together" — a doublet of the word "fashion."

factional

Origin

From faction + -al.

factitious

Origin

Borrowed from Latin factītius (“artificial”), alternative form of factīcius, from faciō (“to make, do”). Doublet of fetish.

factor

Latin

From Latin factor, "a doer or maker," from facere, "to do."

factorise

Latin

From factor, from Latin facere 'to make, do', with the verb-forming suffix -ise.

factory

Latin

Probably from factor plus the suffix -y, likely shaped by association with Latin facere, "to make."

factotum

Origin

Ellipsis of domine fac totum, dominus fac totum /dominus factotum (“absolute ruler; head servant”), from Medieval Latin domine fac tōtum (“O Lord, do everything”), also with substition of nominative dominus for vocative domine.

factual

Origin

Built from "fact" plus the ending "-ual," on the pattern of "actual."

facultative

Origin

From French facultatif. By surface analysis, faculty + -ative.

faculty

Latin

From Old French faculte, from Latin facultas ("ability, skill"), related to facilis, "easy" — the same root that gives us "facility."

fad

French

Origin uncertain — possibly linked to an old English dialect word for "order, tidiness," or to a French word for a trivial idea.

faddle

Origin

Compare fiddle, fiddle-faddle.

fade

Latin

From Old French fade ("weak, dull"), probably going back to a Latin word meaning "insipid" or "tasteless."

fado

Latin

From Portuguese fado, meaning "fate," ultimately from Latin fatum — the same root as the English word "fate."

fae

Origin · 2013

A modern coinage, first appearing around 2013, drawing on the older word "fae" (fairy) for its neopronoun form.

faerie

Origin

A deliberately archaic spelling of fairy (attested since the 1300s in spellings like fairye, fayre), based on Old French faerie, used in 1590 by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene.

faff

Origin

Originally imitative of wind or puffs of air (see verb senses "to blow in puffs", "to move with a puff of air"). The noun is formed from the verb by conversion.